Review: Overlooked Again, by Jon Mollison

Having severely disrupted the Phoenix Ring in Serenity City, Joe and Celeste take their show on the road to Halo City to stop the Ring from stealing an election. Unfortunately, the Ring has more than a few tricks up its sleeve.

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The story

Jon Mollison brings us up to speed with Joe not long after the events of Overlook. He and Celeste may have taken out the Phoenix Ring’s Director in Serenity City, but it takes more than that to keep the centuries old secret society down. That’s why they’ve been taking out other members of the Board, which has kept the Ring off balance. It’s also attracted a lot of attention, enough for the cabal to bring in their own Primes, specifically those who have a better than average chance of actually being able to track down the elusive Joe Smith.

Yes, Primes. As in more than one. The first is Hibou, a Prime with senses enhanced enough that even Joe can’t evade him for long. The Frenchman nearly captures Joe during their first encounter at the beginning of the book and manages to stay on Joe’s trail for most of the story. The other is the First Magus, an unlikely villain who proves able to pinpoint Joe’s location with eerie accuracy.

Thanks to the connections the Ring has in the Mayor’s office and with Alderman Marco Perlas, Joe and Celeste have to continually dodge not just Hibou and the Magus, but the police as well. And it should never be forgotten, the Ring is an organization that is big on revenge, something Joe and Celeste learn by the end of the book.

The characters

Joe of course is still himself, the well-adjusted Prime who has found a way to develop and use his relatively unimpressive power of not being noticed to fight the Ring in ways that the flashier Primes could only imagine. The big change is that he and Celeste are in a relationship now, one that Celeste’s father, the Padre who runs their tiny cell of the Order of St. Hadrian hopes will get a ring put on it sooner rather than later.

The villains in Overlooked Again are welcome additions to the world. Hibou is exactly what his heightened senses would suggest – a hunter. He clearly enjoys the game of trying to track down Joe and corner him at last. He comes close several times, allowing him the chance to prove that he is also a skilled combatant.

The First Magus is someone who would easily be mistaken as a cosplaying convention nerd. In fact, he is exactly that. Except he is also capable of wielding various kinds of magic. He not only can make use of Atlantean magic and artifacts but also demonstrates the ability to summon demons to do his bidding. Despite still living in his mother’s basement, Magus is a formidable adversary.

The world

Silver Empire’s Heroes Unleashed universe continues to grow. Beginning in Serenity City with Heroes Fall, the number of Primes, and the variety of their powers have continued to grow. There are hints of alternate universes, the existence of the supernatural, aliens, and even Atlantis (explored more in The Last Archon that I’ll be reviewing soon). In short, when the Event began the Prime phenomenon, the world didn’t just get superheroes, it got a peak behind the curtain of reality. The pieces are still coming together but I am eager to see how things continue to develop.

Another world-expanding element in this book is that we see more of the Order of St. Hadrian. Not another cell so much as the true extent of Padre’s cell. It turns out there are people who provide IDs, vehicles, and a probably a host of other things, something that causes Joe to have a few questions about how much he is really trusted by Padre and Celeste.

Thanks to some conversations with the bad guys we also learn just how secret, and isolated, the Order really is. While it began as a sanctioned order of the Catholic Church, its continued existence is a secret even from the Vatican given that the Phoenix Ring has agents within those walls as well.

The politics

As before, the heroes operate well outside the system, with Joe literally going around knocking off the bad guys. That may bother some fans of the four-color superheroes but given the world that Joe operates in, it’s clearly justifiable.

More surprisingly, there is the fact there is still some faith in the ability of good men to make a difference within the system. Remember, Joe and Celeste are in Halo City specifically to stop Marco Perlas, an agent from the Ring from stealing and election from his challenger Richard Carter.

Content warning

Joe and Celeste engage in some heavy innuendo and there is some discussion of the depravity of the Ring’s activities but it is all at a PG-13 level.

Who is it for?

Certainly any fan of the Heroes Unleashed series is going to want to read this, especially as it continues to expand the universe and the things we can expect to find in it as the series continues. Any fan of the more intelligent spy movies are games where the main character hides in plain sight will enjoy this. I’m especially thinking of the tradecraft shown in the Bourne movies, where a ball cap, or bending over to tie a shoe are often all that’s needed to escape notice.

Why read it?

Because why wouldn’t you want to read an amazing cat and mouse story involving agents of two warring secret societies?